Lessons learnt from COVID-19: How educational institutions move forward

Introduction

This special issue focuses upon research that illustrates the approaches that demonstrate and illustrate novel educational practice conforming to new educational models of delivery, ways in which innovative methods of educational practice have been implemented and how they have been retained and incorporated into the academic institution concerned, for example, within programme curriculum. The special issue invites research papers that are qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods in research design that empirically denote educational methods, during and post the pandemic, that exemplify approaches towards supporting innovative advances towards educational delivery. Examples of this include novel teaching and learning approaches using immersive technologies, utilisation of virtual learning environments for learning and knowledge sharing and evidence of sharing educational practice across academic curriculum. Papers must indicate how the study illustrates that pedagogical delivery has been adapted and continued to be perfected beyond the lockdown era of COVID-19.
The research published in the special issue will be designed to have an impact in the domain of education in two key respects. The special issue will inform and illustrate various empirical approaches that have been adopted to facilitate and support educational delivery post COVID-19 from a teaching and learning perspective. The empirical studies submitted will allow educators to reflect upon their own approaches towards educational delivery (e.g., blended or hybrid), evaluate ways in which they could be modified and how such practice can be disseminated and shared among colleagues, the academic institution, and the wider academic community. The special issue will further allow educators to reflect on the sustainability of their educational practice post COVID-19 with a view to assessing how it can be improved in the context of hybrid delivery. The special issue will also present empirical studies that indicate how academic practitioners have learnt from their experiences delivering education in the “new norm”.

List of Topic Areas

• Revisitation of the effectiveness of blended learning for pedagogical delivery post the pandemic.
• Assessing and comparing the practicalities of online synchronous and asynchronous delivery for remote educational delivery.
• Innovative approaches towards teaching and learning that occurred during the pandemic and that continue to be successfully adopted throughout course curriculum.
• Empirical evaluation of changes in pedagogical frameworks or models (e.g., face-to-face to hybrid delivery) denoting educational shifts in course curriculum delivery that have been achieved.
• Adoption of immersive technologies (e.g., virtual reality, serious games, games-based learning) and their impact towards remote educational delivery supporting student engagement, motivation and tacit knowledge sharing in the learning process.
• Research studies focusing upon the implementation towards new educational delivery models that have been successfully adopted during and post the pandemic.
• Empirical studies surrounding the pedagogical effectiveness of online communication mediums such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams in comparison for face-to-face delivery.
• Evaluating how to achieve a fine balance between online and on-campus teaching in the context of hybrid educational delivery.
• Conceptual generic frameworks or models from empirical research detailing how to facilitate and support pedagogical delivery within course curriculum in the context of remote teaching and learning.

Submissions Information

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Registration and access are available at: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jarhe 

Author guidelines must be strictly followed. Please see: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/jarhe

Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to ““Please select the issue you are submitting to”.

Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.

Key Deadlines

Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 03/10/2022

Closing date for manuscripts submissions: 01/23/2023